What is a Logline and Why is it Important?

April 6, 2015

A logline is a one sentence, sometimes (read rarely) two sentence description of your film or television show concept. The importance of a logline is to garner interest in your project and to do it quickly. In essence, it’s your quick pitch to producers, and if you want them to be interested in producing your project you’d better make sure your logline grabs their attention. The intent is to make the producer(s) say, “Tell me more.”

Although loglines for film and TV are very similar in style, the way you create them are a little different. Let’s start with film. Typically, in a perfect world, you want to craft your logline before you even start writing your script or outline. The logline boils down the premise of the story into one sentence. If you can’t come up with a compelling logline, then you don’t have a premise for your script. The premise is the fundamental concept that drives your story.

I almost forgot one important detail: try to keep your logline under 40 words. Often times they can be a mouthful so don’t add to it by using too many words. Blake Snyder has a template for creating a film logline, but it’s more of a starter kit. You can use it to get you started, but you’ll need to pare it down to make it more palatable.

As for television show loglines, they are basically the same, only you must convey the premise of the show rather than just one episode. If you are looking to sell your show idea to a producer, boil down the entire show’s premise into one sentence. Again, you should already have an idea of the show’s premise before you even start to outline your pilot episode. The logline will be an important part of your One-Sheet. A One-Sheet is a key piece to your pitch. I’ll discuss it in more detail in a future blog.

It’ll take some time to get the hang of it so don’t give up too quickly. Most writers hate writing loglines, but it’s a key weapon in your arsenal that will help get your script sold. It’s an important craft to learn. So the moral of this story is, “develop your premise before you start writing anything.” It will save you tons of time, blood, sweat, and tears; not to mention it’s key to creating a logline. It’ll also keep you from doing massive rewrites to interject a premise into a script you’ve already written. If you have a story idea, but you haven’t quite nailed down the premise, The Writer online magazine has a great article on how to structure a premise. It’s more for novels, but it will definitely help with your film or TV show concept. Until next week, happy writing.